Full Interviews

Short audio clips cannot not tell the full story. UEA Oral Histories found so many fascinating life-stories that touched and were transformed by the first ten years of UEA. We invite you to explore five interviews, which give different visions of everyday life at the university. Listen to them on the train, at home or while you work. Thanks to Margaret Bothway,Wol Brown, Pat Gowen, Maggie Hummand Peter Sunderland for kindly allowing us to present their memories in full.

Margaret Bothway

Margaret Bothway began working as a secretary at UEA in 1965. She offers a wonderful sense of the ‘free and easy' atmosphere of working life in the early years of UEA and telling descriptions of academics and colleagues at the university.

Wol Brown

In 1964, Wol Brown was one of the first cohort of students studying for a degree in Chemical Sciences at UEA. Listen to this lively interview about university life: studying, social life and the city of Norwich in the mid-1960s.

Pat Gowen

Pat Gowen began work as a biology lab assistant and technician a few months before the university opened in 1963. He offers a captivating picture of new approaches to the teaching of biological sciences at UEA. He also speaks of his biological research into local marine life, finding human debris in the North Sea and his consequential environmental activism.

Maggie Humm

Maggie Humm's memories offer a wonderful glimpse into the social and political changes of the period. She began an English and American studies degree in 1963. She came from Newcastle and speaks of the North/South divide, her life-long interest in literature and her particular experiences of social mobility as a Northern woman. Listen to her stories of Angus Wilson, travelling to Poland during the Cold War and life-long activism.